Many people eschew the smaller social networking sites in favor of the big networks such as Facebook, Twitter and Linked In. Yet before you hop onto the Facebook bandwagon, let’s explore some of the positive aspects of smaller networking sites.Go Where Your Customers Are OnlineThe key to effective social networking online for business is to go to the networks where your customers socialize, conduct business, and network. If your customers are all on a smaller networking site, talking to one another on a specific forum or message board, or hanging out on a popular website, then go there.Think about it in comparison to traditional media. If you’re selling a mass-appeal product such as cookware, then direct television spots make sense. Everyone cooks or at least prepares food. That’s why you see so many infomercials for products like microwave cooking products, George Foreman grills, pots, pans and similar items.Yet a niche business such as model train hobbyists wouldn’t fare as well through direct television spots unless they were chosen very carefully, say placed within a special on the History channel on the development of the railroads. Why? Because although collecting model trains is a wonderful and popular hobby, it’s not a hobby shared by everyone. For every person interested in model trains, there are nine others who don’t care about them.Your job as a marketer is to find the 1 in 10 person who wants – no, needs – the latest, greatest and best model trains out there.If we’re talking about social networking instead of direct television spots, the analogy still holds true. Large sites such as Facebook do enable you to connect with millions of people worldwide. You may do so to network or out of curiosity. That’s all fine. But if you’re trying to maximize your time and efforts using social networking for marketing, it pays to find out first where the 1 person in 10 who wants and needs your product is hanging out. Then go there, get to know people, and share messages related to your product.Marketing Through Social Networking SitesWhat do you do to promote your product or service once you’re on a social network? First and foremost, don’t jump right into your sales pitch. Nothing turns off potential customers more than hard-hitting sales pitches before they’ve even gotten to know you.Social networking sites are first and foremost about networking. Like in person networking events, you want to meet, greet, exchange pleasantries and get to know people. Then and only then can you introduce things you sell or want to promote. Don’t jump right into the sales pitch before you’ve gotten to know someone. That’s about as obnoxious as a sexual come-on at a party when you’ve just met a person. Don’t you want to know about them first?Determine Which One Perform BestOne final way in which you can tell whether or not small social networking sites are better than large social networking sites: test them.Choose three of your favorite social networking sites. Choose one of the smaller social networking sites as one of the three. Now begin to cultivate your messages and relationships. Develop an attractive profile and keep on message. Which one works better for you? Where are your leads coming from? One way to set up such a test as a direct marketing test of sorts is to create a unique URL for each social networking site profile and direct each URL into a special landing page on your website. This way, your site metrics will give you the response rate for your social networking efforts.The only way to really know which sites work best for your promotional efforts is to test them. Get started today! There’s no time like the present.